Souad Jammal knows she is running out of options.
While she was standing in the terminal at Lebanon's only international airport, the Sydney woman watched as her flight to Abu Dhabi got cancelled.
It was one of more than 30 commercial services from the capital, Beirut, to be scrapped on Wednesday alone, as the security situation in the region deteriorates.
"My kids are in Australia, crying, saying 'Mum, you have to come [back],'" she said.
"What can I do? I can't do anything."
Australians scrambling to leave Lebanon are in a race against time, after Israel on Wednesday gave its strongest indication yet it was planning to launch a ground invasion of the country's south with its military.
Should that happen, it would signal a significant increase in hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah, who have exchanged fire for almost a year, and turned up the dial this week.
Israel has been pounding multiple areas of Lebanon with air strikes and rockets in a series of deadly attacks that has killed around 600 people and injured thousands more since the weekend, according to official government updates from Beirut.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has justified the barrage by claiming it is targeting infrastructure used by Hezbollah, an Iran-backed, Lebanon-based paramilitary group which Australia has designated a terrorist organisation.
Ms Jammal, who arrived in Lebanon last month to visit friends and family — despite Australian government advice not to travel to Lebanon — is now stuck.
Her hometown, Chtoura, and neighbouring villages, are among those that have come under fire this week.
"I'm scared. I swear to God. Last night I did not sleep, and the day before, I did not sleep," she told the ABC.
The UN estimates around 90,000 people in Lebanon have already been displaced by the attacks.
The grandmother is keen to return to her home in Greystanes, in Sydney's west, but with flights dwindling and a land journey across war-torn Syria not safe either, she doesn't know what to do.
She's one of at least 15,000 Australians estimated to still be in Lebanon, with the federal government telling them to leave.
On Wednesday, there were several major developments, which underscored the region's dire, and deteriorating, security situation:
- Early in the morning, Hezbollah fired a surface-to-surface missile towards Israel's commercial centre of Tel Aviv for the first time, although it was intercepted before it could land.
- Lebanon's health minister said at least 51 people had been killed and 223 wounded in Israeli strikes on the country since Wednesday morning — including strikes for the first time north of the Lebanese capital, Beirut.
- The IDF's top general Herzi Halevi said its troops were preparing for a ground invasion of southern Lebanon to "continue degrading Hezbollah".
In a statement, the militant group said its intended target for the missile was the Mossad spy agency's headquarters.
Hezbollah blames the organisation for blowing up hundreds of its communications devices last week, and in doing so, killing 42 people and injuring around 4,500 more, according to Lebanon's health ministry.
The paramilitary group's decision to fire such a powerful weapon so deep into Israeli territory was a clear warning of its capabilities.
During a visit to IDF forces stationed near the country's border with Lebanon on Wednesday, Lieutenant General Halevi said Hezbollah had "expanded its range of fire" and would receive a "very strong response".
He said the military's goal was to allow tens of thousands of people who lived in the country's north to return home, after nearly a year of being displaced.
"To achieve that, we are preparing the process of a manoeuvre, which means your military boots, your manoeuvring boots, will enter enemy territory," he told soldiers in a video which was released by the IDF.
Israel says Hezbollah has fired more than 9,000 rockets and drones since the war began last October.
Some Australians staying put
As fighting between Israel and Hezbollah continues to escalate, not all Australians in Lebanon have plans to leave.
Perth woman Mary-Ann Flegg moved to Beirut 12 months ago with her two teenaged daughters. Most of the family's time in the region has been spent amid a backdrop of war.
Ms Flegg, who is volunteering as a missionary, said her life was in Lebanon now.
"I've made connections with people that I'm helping in the community," she said.
"I don't want to leave them and abandon them at this time. This is when they need us to help."
Earlier this week, Foreign Minister Penny Wong warned Australians still in Lebanon that it would be "beyond" the federal government to help them all evacuate.
Ms Flegg said she and her family had "contingency plans for many scenarios".
"I think the red line for me is, how much exposure will my kids have to war."
She said parts of the country still felt safe.
"I guess the tipping point would be if it there is nowhere for us to feel completely safe," she said.
"We've got friends who have lived here for 20 years and have already endured many wars, with children, and we have a lot of wise counsel to help us navigate these questions and figure out what we're going to do next."
That could be sooner rather than later.
On Monday, Lebanon's health ministry recorded 492 deaths — a number that has only grown since.
And if the escalating rhetoric is anything to go by, that number could be topped again.
On Wednesday, Iran's ambassador to Lebanon, Mojtaba Amani, who sustained a serious eye injury during the attack targeting Hezbollah communications devices last week, took to social media to describe his wounds as "an honour".
Later, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a statement, which did not mention a ground invasion.The leader said he could not "detail everything" the country's military was planning, although he insisted: "We are inflicting blows on Hezbollah that it never imagined."
World leaders are meeting in New York this week for the annual UN General Assembly and are set to be tested by the rising violence between Israel and Hezbollah, with plans for a US-led temporary ceasefire proposal reportedly to be considered.
